Riding the Raisina Tiger

Riding the Raisina Tiger - a Politico-military thriller about an Army Chief who decided to take things into his own hands. AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD ON 26 JAN ON OCCASION OF REPUBLIC DAY FROM https://www.amazon.com/Riding-Raisina-Tiger-Story-military-ebook/dp/B01ALCCNSS

Wednesday, 6 April 2016

New Delhi: Indian Army Chief General Dalbir Singh will
be visiting the US on a "goodwill visit" from April 5 to 8 when he
will also meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The visit is part of
the ongoing high level exchanges between India and the US.

General Dalbir Singh
will meet Ban at the UN headquarters to "strengthen the Indian Army's
commitment towards UN Missions", an official statement in Delhi said.

He will also visit
the US Central Command (CENTCOM) that includes countries in the Middle East,
North Africa, and Central Asia including Afghanistan and Iraq in its Area of
Responsibility.

He will also visit
the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the Unified Combatant
Command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations Component
Commands of the United States Armed Forces, headquarter 1 Corps and US Army's
Manoeuvre Centre of Excellence (MCoE) where he will hold discussions with
commanders of the US Army.

In Washington,
General Dalbir Singh will meet US Secretary of Army, Chairman Jt. Chiefs of
Staff, Chief of Staff of the US Army and Commander US Marine Corps, along with
other officials.

The India-US ties
have been transformed in recent years with a renewed Defence Framework
Agreement, supply of defence equipment, sharing of technology and
military-to-military exchanges.

Battle Of Asal
Uttar: When The Indian Army Destroyed 165 Pakistani Tanks In 48 Hours

During the Indo-Pak
War of 1965, a battle took place, which the Indian army had already lost, on
paper. Although, what happened on the battlefield proved yet again that the
bravery and courage of the Indian army soldiers is beyond measure. This was the
Battle Of Asal Uttar or ‘The Real Answer’.

At the peak of the
war of 1965, Pakistan’s General Ayub Khan devised a strategy to capture
Amritsar and block the supplies of the Indian Armed Forces stationed in Jammu
& Kashmir. The task was handed over to the ‘1st Armoured Division’ aka the
‘Pride Of Pakistan’. Pakistan’s motive, in a nutshell, was to defeat India in
the worst way, inflicting as much collateral damage as possible.

Backed by America,
the Pakistani army back then, was armed with the world’s best Patton Tanks. The
Indian army was still recovering from the loss it had suffered against China in
1962 and the military modernization was still underway. On 8th September 1965,
Pakistan army launched its first arm of offensive in the Khem Karan area of
Punjab with over 220 Patton tanks ready to turn everything in that came their
way to dust. Lt. General Harbaksh Singh was commanding the Indian battalion
that was to face this massive attack. The Pakistani offensive outnumbered the
Indian defensive by the number of soldiers and tanks. It was up to Lt. Singh to
either withdraw or defend his position. Instead of withdrawing, he rearranged
his forces in a U-shaped formation around the town of Asal Uttar. The idea was
to assault as many tanks as possible from all three sides.

Thinking that Indian
troops had withdrawn, the Pakistani tanks got lured into the U-shaped area. The
Indian army had already flooded the sugarcane fields with water that led the
thick armored Pakistani Patton tanks to sink and get stuck into the mushy soil.
The entire Pakistani cavalry of 200 plus tanks was now immobilized. At this
time, the soldiers and tanks of Indian army commenced a massive fire assault.
The tall sugarcane grass allowed the Indian forces in the U-formation to remain
hidden but yet, stay very close to the Paki tanks. The result was that out of
220 Patton tanks, 170 were destroyed or abandoned and 11 captured. Only 32
Indian tanks were damaged. The sight of
the destroyed tanks was such that the town was named Patton Nagar aka The
Graveyard of Pattons. The story of Lt. Singh’s brilliant strategy is still told
at military schools all over the world. This battle went down in history as the
largest tank battle after World War 2.